Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems (No) wow on power amps on clean power

The sockets labelled "power amp" on the PPP are in fact identical to the other sockets. PS Audio even says so in the manual. They are labelled as such as a convenience.

Isotek said that since the Titan can provide up to 23,000 watts temporarily there is no way the PPP can provide such power. I have it plugged into the PPP now and intend to leave it for a few weeks and then plug it back into the wall and see if there is a difference.

One nice thing about the Isotek Titan is that it is specifically designed for power amps and it has 3 power outlets so you can have a Trifield set all powered from it.

howie

Howie, the manual actually states:

“On the Power Plant Premier, IsoZone 5 is labeled Power Amp. It is no different than any of the other 4 IsoZones, other than it is a single duplex receptacle to keep the heavy current draw of power amps from affecting more sensitive source equipment”

With this they hypothesize that this outlet differs from the rest. If and how in fact this is supported remains unknown I guess because no one will be able to validate this statement.


Do you mean Trifield with DSP's? VK mentioned that Mother does not recommend to have DSP behind a power conditioner.

Alex

As far as I can work out there are 3 Isozones. The power amp pair of sockets is one zone and the other zones all have several pairs of sockets together so I guess what they mean is that you should plug similar equipment within each zone but there would be no difference, if, for example, you decided to plug your power amps into zone 2 and your preamp into zone 3 (labelled Power amp). Since people are unlikely to have more than 2 monoblocks zone 3 only has two sockets to accommodate this.

As for DSP and power conditioners, I don't know of any manufacturers who recommend power conditioning but I can tell you that it makes a difference in my place and most manufacturers use them in demos anyway. I think manufacturers don't want to get involved with conditioners and power cords etc etc.

howie

Oooh, no, you definately don't want to do that - negates the high current capability of the Titan. You can, however, plug the Titan into the PS Audio Soloist which is neither a regenerator nor current limiting (PS Audio recommends also using a Soloist for the PPP). I'm doing that with my two Titans and it works really well. My PPP is just used to run the 861 and any source equipment. Any large amp will quickly overwhelm the PPP.

BTW, anyone on the UK side know for sure whether Isotek has gone belly-up? Too bad if so.

Belly up??? I was just corresponding with them a couple of days ago!

Okay the consensus seems to be the titan into the wall and the ppp to sources and preamps.:)

Will check out the soloist, thanks.

howie

That's good! I was under the impression that they had gone into liquidation before the holidays.

The website of Audio Affair noted Isotek as being in Administration in early January. At that point they were selling their remaining stock at discount. Looking at their website this evening, they now note "IsoTek is now being distributed by Sound Fowndations and is available again." Prices (and stock availability) appear normal.

On the broader point of conditioning, I'd have though that running a Titan via anything else was a bad idea on safety grounds, as it could impede the RCD trip protection?

I've had a few conditioners to try, and few have worked out for me. The Titan worked wonders with DSP5500s, worked well with DSP6000s, but hampered the DSP8000s. In conjunction with it's dedicated Multilink, it noticeably improved the picture on my Gen 6 Panasonic plasma/Crystalio/Philips 963 rig.

The PS Audio P500 driving all the source components and processor seemed to subjectively rob the sound of life...quite a flat presentation, and the fan was a bit intrusive. I then tried an ExactPower EP15 which did offer some subjective improvement, but at considerable cost, so it was returned. I didn't like the Isotek Nova at all, as dynamics seemed very compressed (this was feeding the source components).

Having enjoyed the performance of the Titan/Multilink with the screen, I recently thought I'd take a punt on the Isotek Pictoris (a larger Mira) to try to get the same benefit on the cheap, but alas I can't say I see any real benefit!

Cheers

George

Good observations!

I bought a couple of Titans at a nice discount in January. I've had a lot of experience with power conditioners and have found the Titans to be at the top of the heap in terms of actually having a tangible, positive impact. Many other conditioners made no difference to my ears.

I do run my Titans out of a PS Audio wall-installed Soloist outlet, and believe - given its design as a balun-based surge supressor with no current restrictions - that it is not compromising them. Not sure I understand why that might impede the RCD trip?

Presumably your soloist has US sockets. How does that affect household insurance. I understood that house wall sockets had to be 13A British flat pin ones??

howie

You know the Balun based High-Current Ultimate Outlet from PS Audio was severely restricting current to amps. For outlets I would just select a high quality Hubbel (if they make UK ones) based outlet for good grip and large contact area.

If you want the best, and the chance to use Schuko I would recommend this one:

http://www.furutech.com/a2008/product2.asp?prodNo=269

It's an overspecced and extremely rigid outlet.

They have US ones as well.

Shunyata plates Hubbel based outlets if you want a deluxe Hubbel:
http://www.shunyata.com/Content/products-Outlets.html

That seems to be the problem. All serious high end wall plates seem to be available only in US or Schuko formats.

howie

I use the PS audio high current ultimate outlets with my Bryston monoblock amplifiers and do not have any problems with lack of dynamics. The balun only has 8 turns with dual 10AWG wire or is it 8AWG. That can't be impeding current flow. In fact these are the only surge devices I have ever had that didn't screw up dynamics and having surge protection is a good thing.

Ron